This Day in Katusa

The drive to Katusa is 25 miles outside of the city of Kampala. However, today, 25 miles was one hour long! We greeted the day with very much traffic, their rush hour, so to speak. One cannot get used to riding on the "wrong side of the road". You are continuously thinking that you are about to wreck, but no wrecks for us! Everywhere there are motorcycle taxis, called "border-border"s. We have seen them carry three passengers plus the driver. We have seen them carry 8-10 mattresses. Once we saw one carrying a 300 pound hog tied onto it! It is amazing what they can get on a motorcycle here!
The church at Katusa was planted by Nelson Kysooka, who founded Grace Fellowship Ministries. We work with them here in Kampala. We were the first mission team to come to Katusa. Katusa was very green with lush vegetation. They have the avocado tree, the mango tree, the papaya tree, the jack-fruit tree, the banana tree, the coffee bean bush. There are little mounds of potatoes growing everywhere. But, there is not much clean water, and many children were very sick because of this. They are not educated about the importance of clean water or eating nutritious diets. Our team gave them demonstrations on how to purify water using the sun's rays. Many came for this technology. This should improve the quality of life for these precious people.
The doctors and our pharmacist saw over 160 patients today. They saw malaria, ulcers,worms. One man came with a very bad looking wound on his leg. It was the size of a baseball. He said that he had been bitten by a dog...2 YEARS AGO! The doctor said the only hope for this man is if he follows doctor's orders about the care of the wound and also takes his medicine. We pray for this man. He is probably at least 65 years old.
We played with the children, and there were many! We played soccer, baseball, blew bubbles, hit the beachball around, painted faces, and gave hugs. We looked into the eyes of these children and saw pain, suffering, and thankfulness. But they gave us many smiles!
When we left, the children lined the road as we boarded the bus. We gave them our few left-over peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches. They were wrapped in aluminum foil, so they had no idea what they were getting, but they wanted them! We waved and waved and took many pictures. I hope to come back here again. They need us, but they have blessed me.

Sherry Sprayberry
Team member